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Superman Returns

Hollywood has decided that the time was now right for the notorious Man of Steel to make another appearance on the big screen.  It has been reported that the studio spent close to $250 million dollars to produce Superman Returns, and it was well worth every cent.

 

The new Superman, Brandon Routh, does an excellent job in capturing the essence of both Clark Kent and the superhero.  His looks weren’t the only thing that reminded me of the long ago performance of Christopher Reeves.  The ease with which he seemed to fill every scene and the sincerity he obviously put into the role were also very reminiscent, and more than once I found myself welling up with my childhood memories of the Superman movies.

 

Kate Bosworth also does a good job as Lois Lane, but Parker Posey as Kitty Kowalski really steals the show.  She plays perfectly off of Kevin Spacey’s Lex Luther, and she delivers her one-liners so perfectly that it made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion.  Speaking of Spacey, when I first heard that he was going to be taking on the role of the legendary criminal, I had my doubts.  I mean, this was the loveable guy from K-Pax and Pay it Forward, after all, and even his performance in The Usual Suspects did not come across as deeply deranged as Luther’s character would need to be.  However, I quickly found that my fear was unfounded because his portrayal of Luther was so evil it was almost venomous. 

 

The one thing that I would have to say that was wrong with the movie was that at times the special effects seemed to be too much, too big, and it took away from a lot of these brilliant performances.  I’ve noticed that this has been a recent trend with a lot of the big budget movies that are coming out, and I often find myself wishing that they would stop trying to awe me with these graphics so much and let me enjoy the movie.  I think that the Spiderman movies have reached this kind of compromise, and I hope that with time the future Superman movies will also find this viewer’s movie-watching g-spot. 

 

Overall, I highly recommend seeing this recreation of the DC Comics hero and advise everyone not to be intimidated by the almost three hour-long running time.  Trust me, the time will fly by.